French battleship La Gloire

The French Navy's "La Gloire" ("Glory") was the first ocean-going ironclad battleship in history.

She was developed following the Crimean War, in response to new developments in naval gun technology, especially the Paixhans guns and rifled guns, which used explosive shells with increased destructive power against wooden ships, and followed the development of the ironclad floating batteries built by the British and French for the bombardment of Russian forts during the Crimean War. She was designed by the French naval architect Dupuy de Lôme, and was launched at the arsenal of Mourillon, Toulon, on 24 November 1859. 2 sister-ships were built.

A 5,630-ton broadside battleship cut down by one deck in order to save weight, she used massive iron plates sheathed over a wooden hull structure. Her 12cm-thick protection plates resisted the experimental firing of the strongest guns of the time (the French 50-pounder and the British 68-pounder) at full charge, at a distance of 20 metres.

Despite these qualities, the ship proved quite hard on the crew as any opening had been forbidden, in order to avoid piercing the protection plate: aeration was poor, and oil lamps had to be used for light.

"La Gloire" initiated the obsolescence of traditional non-armoured wooden ships-of-the-line, and all major navies had no choice but to build ironclads of their own. The word had it that "Gloire" fighting against conventional ships of the time would be comparable to "a wolf wreaking havoc amongst sheep." However "La Gloire" was soon herself rendered obsolete by the launching in 1860 of the British HMS "Warrior", the world's first iron hulled warship. "La Gloire" was near Cherbourg during the historic American Civil War defeat of the Confederate commerce raider CSS "Alabama by the USS "Kearsarge" on 19 June 1864 off the same harbour.

In 1879, "La Gloire" was de-listed from the French fleet registry and scrapped in 1883. Her sister ships had been scrapped years earlier due to their poor construction.

"La Gloire" had two sister ships:
* "Invincible", laid down in Toulon May 1858, launched 4 April 1861, commissioned March 1862, scrapped 1871.
* "Normandie", laid down in Cherbourg 14 September 1858, launched 3 October 1860, commissioned 13 May 1862, scrapped 1872.

See also

* French ship "Gloire" for eponymous ships

References

*"Steam, Steel and Shellfire: The steam warship 1815-1905" - Conway's History of the ship ISBN 0-7858-1413-2
*Musée de la Marine, Paris